Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Gibonni
Label: Dallas Records
Release: 2013
Duration: approx. 60 min (CD) / approx. 75 min (DVD)
Rating: 4/5
This double live document from the tour supporting the album »Toleranca«, packaged as a CD plus DVD, is a release from Croatian entertainer Gibonni that landed at just the right time in just the right place. Officially, of course, because of the holiday season: the official release date was December 2, 2013. But on the other hand, this release pulls attention away from the unfortunate new studio album »20th Century Man« (2013), which proved that Gibonni and verses in English don’t exactly get along. By the usual logic, this document should have come out a year or two after the album »Toleranca« (2010), and certainly before the next studio album. And the bad impression left by »20th Century Man« should by rights be fixed by Gibonni’s next studio album. But that’s how it goes. To hold on to his high musical reputation on home turf, digging through the concert archives was therefore a very useful move for Gibonni right now. This is concert material from the second of two shows in a completely sold-out main hall of Dom sportova in the middle of Zagreb, on the magical date of April 23, 2010!
This document, too, unmistakably proves that when it comes to the superiority of musical perfection, near-flawless production and execution of the material on stage, hardly anyone in Croatia today can match Gibonni. On his home turf, that is! »Live« is also a clear mirror showing something important: despite his countless successes, awards, and the fact that he broke every possible record on the home music market long ago and reached the status of undying star fame, the man is by no means resting on his laurels. He keeps working hard to maintain his reputation as the currently, and deservedly, most successful Croatian singer-songwriter and really musician, full stop.
The new live document continues the approach of this kind of release embodied by its predecessor »Acoutic/Electric« (2007). Back then the two CDs, the acoustic and the electric one, were noticeably different in their selection of songs, and the release didn’t offer the concert performed in one piece, just selected moments from the tour. The new live document keeps that approach. Both the CD and the DVD contain a noticeably different set of songs. On the night of the concert there were thirty numbers in the setlist in total. The DVD has only about 75 minutes of footage, and the CD is limited to just over an hour of music. The set itself stretched to a full two and a half hours. Given the exceptional quality of the recordings, it’s a big shame that Dallas Records didn’t decide to release the whole concert recording. That option was probably dropped for fear of a possible financial loss.
The document is outstanding, even if it’s cut down in length. Gibonni once again thought of every last detail. The stage set for the »Toleranca« tour grew a bit bigger and blossomed in character. At the center of attention is, of course, the magical commander Gibonni and his by now well-known and much-loved total devotion to the emotions and passions that drive his performance. And here the most important factor in amplifying Gibonni’s passions even further is, of course, the audience and its feedback, its response. That is the guarantee of building a gripping piece of theater, which is really a concert specialty when local acts perform in the countries south of the Kolpa river, and also, say, in Italy in general, when it comes to acts like Vasco Rossi, Zucchero, or Eros Ramazotti. The audience literally carries Gibonni on its hands. That chemistry between the musicians and the audience’s reactions is the very element that instantly pins the listener and viewer of this concert document to the armchair, with no desire to get up until the last second of the show has played. The crowd reacts to every Gibonni move, every gesture, every command, and it hardly needs saying that they fanatically sing along at full volume, as one body, to every single verse of every song.
On Gibonni’s own face you can clearly see a few times that he is so moved he can barely come back to himself as he looks out over the packed hall of Dom sportova, which is filled with faces of happiness and, I won’t exaggerate if I say, faces of deep inner fulfillment (for two and a half hours), as they co-create his unique musical world with him.
As mentioned: the chemistry of eruptive passions and emotions rules this document. It hits hard. You can’t escape it, and that is its basic magnet! The theater of emotions remains the most important element of the celebratory feel and magic of Gibonni’s shows, and that’s captured on this concert document too (the song Žeđam is in itself one of the highlights of this document).
Besides the outstanding backdrop formed by his established band, what fascinates once again is the combination of Gibonni’s vocals with the backing vocals. This time Gibonni generously boosted individual numbers by inviting two Black female singers on stage, Maya Azucena and Rashida Bryant, while Damir Urban (who also contributed the cover art for the concert document) has become an expected fixture of Gibonni’s shows, especially when it’s time for the combined songs Judi, zviri i beštimje and Mala voda (the famous Laufer evergreen). The combination of Gibonni’s lead vocals with Maya’s fantastic soul hairdo and Urban’s recognizable vocal approach ignites in an especially ravenous way in the concert standard Posoljeni zrak i razlivena tinta! The CD tracks Divji cvit, Mirakul, Žeđam, Zamoli me, Vrata moje sestre, the combination of two hits Ne odustajem/Dvije duše, Toleranca, and Slavim ove dane što si tu are, with this new live release, officially documented for the first time.
A live document mixed to the highest standard. As such, it can make a superb gift for someone who may have experienced this concert in Dom Sportova in person. But more than that, it’s yet another testament to Gibonni’s musical perfectionism, further cementing his well-earned status and reputation as the biggest star of the Croatian mainstream right now.
Production
Miro Lesič
Track list
CD:
1. Divji cvit
2. Mirakul
3. Ne odustajem / Dvije duše
4. Amazing Grace
5. Toleranca
6. Žeđam
7. Zamoli me
8. Judi, zviri i beštimje / Moja voda
9. Slavim ove dane što si tu
10. Psoljeni zrak i razlivena tinta
11. Vrata moje sestre
DVD:
1. Žedam
2. Ovo mi je škola
3. U ljubav vjere nemam
4. Zamoli me (možda ti je izpod časti)
5. Judi, zviri i beštimje / Mala voda
6. Hodaj / Andeo u tebi
7. Slavim ove dane što si tu
8. Posoljeni zrak i razlivena tinta
9. Tempera
10. Ako me nosiš na duši
11. Mirakul
12. Vrime da se pomirim sa svitom
13. Toleranca
